Good Books

The _bonde_ hailed him good-humoredly as an old acquaintance,--much in
the tone of a master addressing a servant,--and Thelma smiled kindly at
him,--but the boundary line between superior and inferior was in this
case very strongly marked, and neither side showed any intention of
overstepping it. In the course of the day, Duprez had accidentally
lapsed into French, whereupon to his surprise Thelma had answered him in
the same tongue,--though with a different and much softer pronunciation.
Her "_bien zoli_!" had the mellifluous sweetness of the Provencal
dialect, and on his eagerly questioning her, he learned that she had
received her education in a large convent at Arles, where she had
learned French from the nuns. Her father overheard her talking of her
school-days, and he added--
"Yes, I sent my girl away for her education, though I know the teaching
is good in Christiania. Yet it did not seem good enough for her.
Besides, your modern 'higher education' is not the thing for a
woman,--it is too heavy and commonplace.


Pages:
197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221